The basics

Recordkeeping deals with the ‘making and maintaining of complete, accurate and reliable evidence of business transactions in the form of recorded information’. It is an important component of information management.

Information Management (IM) involves not just managing the records of business but, beyond this, managing information and data in its various forms. IM is a discipline that encompasses strategic planning, budgeting, control, management and use of information resources.

A Public Record is all information created, sent and received by a Victorian public sector employee in the course of carrying out the business of the agency including electronic documents, emails, websites, audio-visual records, databases and system-generated records, as well as physical documents and files.

A volunteer is a person undertaking work for a government agency on an unpaid basis. This type of arrangement falls outside the definition of a Victorian public sector employee.

Generally, volunteers are not considered public sector employees because they are not paid and they do not have the same rights and responsibilities as paid public servants. This difference in status, may pose recordkeeping challenges for an agency to accurately capture records of activities undertaken by volunteers.

To support effective administration, volunteers should be informed that they need to:

create full and accurate records

ensure records include information that will allow others to easily understand